A Retired Librarian Leaves $2M to West Hartford Public Library
March 19, 2008
Often, the story of an unexpected major bequest involves a patron who quietly but regularly used the library. In the case of the West Hartfort Public Library, CT, however, the story stars a longtime reference librarian, Thomas Kilfoil, who died in 2005 at 82 and left the library $2 million. (He worked until he was 79.)
While library staffers said they didn't know how he amassed such sums, he clearly was frugal, walking a two-mile round-trip to work each day, according to the Hartford Courant's coverage [1]
. The money, reported WFSB-TV [2], will help with a new handicapped accessible reference desk, future renovations, a West Hartford history room, and an internship for students interested in librarianship.
"It seems fitting to give something back to an institution that gave me so many happy and fulfilling years," Kilfoil wrote in a letter to the library [3]. Library director Pat Holloway commented, "Mr. Kilfoil loved the West Hartford Public Library. He was one of our own staff who influenced many of the younger people who came in contact with him, and his exceptional gift has left us all in a state of semi-shock."
Posted by Norman Oder [4] on March 19, 2008 | Comments (0) [5]